July 21
We went real far east today to Swanson Channel south of Pender Island in Canada today. We were watching the T46Bs again today, a lot farther than we saw them yesterday.
We got some great looks at their eye patches and the lighting was perfect to see their spouts. On the way, we stopped and watched some steller sea lions sleeping, one was using another as a pillow, very adorable.
July 22
We searched all over today going around the North end of Orcas and up to Saturna Island in Canada with no luck finding whales. We did see lots of seals and sea lions during our search.
Then near the end of the day off Sinclair Island we spotted the T109A2’s and T65’s! We got to spend around 45 minutes with them, and saw a little bit of surface activity. It looked lille they had caught something and were passing it around. We got great looking at some eye and saddle patches.
July 23
The T109A2s were spotted first thing this morning down by Castle Rock off Lopez Island. With that destination in mind, we stopped briefly at Viti rocks, before making our way down Bellingham channel.
We came on scene with the T109A2s playing in the Kelp near Castle Rock, So many tail Slaps, peduncle throws, cartwheels and breaches! This pod have been major show stoppers for us this season.
As we were watching the orcas, we surprisingly got a humpback that came within a half mile as well. This was a small whale, that unfortunately is missing his entire tail fluke. We saw the humpback make a few quick surfaces near the orcas, but no behavior changes for either.
The humpback changed direction and we stayed with the T1O9A2s. We watched them continue with heavy play in the Kelp beds for about an hour.
We took the inner islands route back home and stopped at Whale Rocks where we saw several larger stellers fighting for marker space as always.
Great day!
July 24
Orcas were spotted nearer by in Rosario this morning, so we got to make quite a few stops.
We saw a lot of harbor seals at Viti Rock and Eliza rocks, along with some pups! Then we made our way to some sea lions on a marker. Also over to Pea Pod where we saw a few bald eagles, and one even had a fish in its talons!
We caught up with the whales right outside of Peavine pass, and they went down Obstruction pass. They made a pretty close pass underneath the boat, and so we killed the engines and drifted and watched.
There were 7 whales total and one of them did an impressive high speed lunge out of the water. It was a lovely hour with these whales!
July 25
We started our search through the middle of the San Juans. We saw lots of seals and sea lions fighting for a spot on a marker.
Around 1pm we heard about a humpback just south of Active Pass, so we turned North and booked it up there. We got about 30 minutes with the humpback, and ID’d him as Gibbous. He gave us lots of surfacing with only 1-4 minute down times, showing us flukes every time!
July 26
We headed down through Bellingham Channel & Rosario Strait to the very south side of the Islands. We were able to see the T75B’s for 45 minutes. They were doing a lot of zig zags, and right as Cpt Michael announced we’d have to turn back after the next surfacing, the whales popped up 50 yards from the boat!
We saw lots of close surfacing, and the whole pod swam alongside the boat. Passengers said they could see eyes, and blowholes under the water!
July 27
Early reports of orcas were a bit sketchy until they decided on a direction. We made our way up Hale passage first thing this morning to look at steller’s and search for baleen whales.
Orca reports turned favorable and we managed to catch up with the TO34s, and T037! The calf of T34 was porpoising and did a few cartwheels, while Pizzafin was busy tail slapping.
As we watched these whales spread out and come back together over and over, we saw them make a quick kill and meal share, as they started to pick up speed and had to leave the scene.
T034 – Grace
TO34A – Pachamama
T034B – Sonder
T037- Pizzafin
TO37B-Harald
TO37B1 – Lance
T34A1- Calf
